Miles BOWKER^[1]

1765 - 1839  (74 years)

• Name	Miles BOWKER
  Birth	1765	Deckhams Hall, Gateshead, England
  Gender	Male
  Death	25 Mar 1839	Tharfield, Albany District, Eastern Cape, South Africa
  Person ID	I2549	My Family Tree | Ancestors and descendants of Nesta Marion HILL
  Last Modified	6 Feb 2008

  
  

  Father	Thomas BOWKER
  Family ID	F900	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Anna Maria MITFORD,   b. 1782   d. 8 Jul 1868, Tharfield, Eastern Cape, South Africa
  Children	+ 1. John Mitford BOWKER,   b. 13 Apr 1801, Mitford Hall, England d. 1847, 'Oakwell' near Grahamstown (Age 45 years) + 2. William Monkhouse BOWKER,   b. 1803, Mitford Hall, England d. 1876 (Age 73 years)   3. Miles Brabbin BOWKER,   b. 1806, England d. 1864 (Age 58 years) + 4. Thomas Holden BOWKER,   b. 24 Feb 1807, Mitford Hall, England d. 26 Oct 1885, Tharfield, Eastern Cape, South Africa (Age 78 years) + 5. Bertram Egerton BOWKER,   b. 1810, England d. 1907, Johannesburg, South Africa (Age 97 years) + 6. Robert Mitford BOWKER,   b. 1812, England d. 24 Aug 1892, "Craigie Burn", Somerset, South Africa (Age 80 years) + 7. Septimus Bourchier BOWKER,   b. 1814, England d. 1895, Alstonfields, Bedford District. (Age 81 years) + 8. Octavius Bourchier BOWKER,   b. 1816   d. 23 Jul 1899, "Champagne", Zastron, South Africa (Age 83 years) + 9. Mary Elizabeth BOWKER,   b. 5 Jan 1818, Manor Farm, South Newton, England d. 4 Sep 1899, Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa (Age 81 years) + 10. Anna Maria BOWKER,   b. 1820, on board the Weymouth in Cape harbour d. 1895 (Age 75 years)   11. James Henry BOWKER,   b. 1822, Olive Burn, Eastern Cape, South Africa d. 29 Oct 1900, on his estate in Escombe, Durban, Natal (Age 78 years)
  Photos		Anna Maria MITFORD Painting by W. G. Bevington Albany Museum, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa
  Family ID	F899	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	2 Feb 2007

  
  

• Histories » Slide Show		Bowkers of Tharfield Extract of F. C. Metrowich's book "Assegai Over the Hills". The Story of the Eastern Cape. First published July 1953 by Howard B. Timmins, 58, Long Street, Capetown. Chapter XXV: Bowkers of Tharfield
  		Letters from Miles BOWKER to Secretary of State for the Colonies. From 18 Jul 1819 to 26 Dec 1819. Transcript of CO48/41 National Archives, Kew, London
  		Log of the HMSS Weymouth (1819 - 1820) From Portsmouth, England to Algoa Bay, East Cape Province (Port Elizabeth). 16 December 1819 to 20 May 1820

  
  

• Sources

  [S7145] Ivan and Raymond Mitford-Barberton, The Bowkers of Tharfield, (Oxford 1952). Miles Bowker was head of the Bowker party that left Portsmouth, England, aboard the Weymouth sometime during December 1819 or January 1820. The Weymouth arrived in Cape Town during March/April 1820, and then sailed to Port Elizabeth, arriving there after 10th April 1820. Sometime during May or June, the Bowker party left Algoa Bay. Their route crossed over the Koega and Zwartkops rivers near the coast, and then inland over Grass Ridge to the Addo Drift, across the Sundays River about 20 miles from it's mouth, and then over the Addo Heights. From this point the route took a south-easterly direction, more or less parallel to the coast, passing Congo's Kraal and Graafwater, to Jager's Drift on the Bushmans River. After passing the mission station at Theopolis, they forded the Kowie river at it's mouth at low tide, by utilising two exposed sandbanks. This trip took about 8 days to complete, and was led by Petrus Oosthuizen, who became a great friend of Miles Bowker. Two of Miles's sons married Petrus' daughters. The Bowker party of 23 consisted of: Miles, wife Ann Maria, sons William Monkhouse B., Miles Brabbin, Thomas Holden, Robert Mitford, Septimus, Octavius, and daughters Mary Elizabeth and Anna Maria; Henry Adams, G Austen, Charles Besant, G.Hooks Down, John Hayter, William Ingram, Richard Limes, John Stanford and his wife Maria, son John and daughters Letitia, Jane and Sophia. The other two Bowker sons, John Mitford and Bertram Egerton, joined the family in 1922, and the last son, James Henry, was born at Tharfield. . The Bowker family were allocated the land known as Tharfield, on the KleinMonden River, north of Port Kowie (Port Alfred). Miles, together with Major Pigot and J. Dyason tried to develop Port Kowie as a harbour in 1821. He was appointed as a Heemraad (judicial assessor) to assist the deputy magistrate, Major Jones, at Grahamstown in 1821, but Lord Somerset dismissed Major Jones and the heemraad in 1822. . Interested in botany, he was sending indigenous bulbs from the Lower Albany area to the Government Secretary as early as 1826. He was also a pioneer in establishing the wool industry in the Eastern Cape, in 1826, with merino sheep. Miles Bowker, a Wiltshire farmer, led a party on the Weymouth. They settled on the right bank of the Gorge River and called it Olive Burn. He came out with his wife and 8 children and one was born while lying at anchor in Table Bay.